Culmination. People in the airport welcomed Sviatlana Alexievich with flowers and books (photos)

Boris Goretsky, specially for "EuroBelarus"

Belarusans demonstrated civic self-organization and gave the Nobel Laureate a hearty, sincere, and emotional welcome.

At times it was even too emotional – the halls of the airport were too cramped for journalists, admirers of Sviatlana Alexievich’s work, and those, who wanted to congratulate the writer, who became the first Belarusan to receive the Nobel Prize. No less then 300 people arrived to the National Airport at 4.35 pm, also thanks to the Facebook initiative “Let’s celebrate Nobel together!” Let us recall that during the whole week the flash mob #nobelrazam was being held as a response to the state’s disdain of the Belarus’ Nobel Laureate.

The writer appeared before the Belarusans to the clamor “Hurray!” and “Thank you!” to immediately find herself in a think crowd of people with flowers, dictaphones, cameras, and so on.

She said that she didn’t waited officials there: “People welcome me”.

According to her, for Belarus, Nobel Prize “means a lot only if the word “Belarus” is in every newspaper not only in Sweden, but all over the world”.

As to the authorities’ neglect of the Nobel week, it takes place “only because we have such authorities”. “These are such authorities, who aren’t ready to face any other strong person near them. It tells about their weakness”, - Alexievich said.

She plans to rest; as to the prize, she thinks about “organizing an intellectual club, where I can invite smart people, who can talk with us. An international club, so that we would be inviting people from all over the world. We’ll think of how we’ll organize that. I will gather all my friends intellectuals and we’ll think it over”.

People accompanied Sviatlana Alexievich to her car, but the meeting wasn’t over – the road police used megaphone to ask people to free the traffic area.

The only state media that “EuroBelarus” noticed in the airport was the “Minsk24Doc” channel.

Late in the evening the webpage of “Sovetskaya Belorussiya” newspaper (the largest and most read daily newspaper in Belarus; since 1994 is the official organ of the Presidential Administration of Belarus – EuroBelarus) posted a note titled “Nobel Laureate at home”. Here’s its full text: “Yesterday after the end of the solemn events the Nobel Laureate Sviatlana Alexievich came back home to Minsk. The numerous admirers of her talent welcomed Sviatlana Alexievich in the airport”.